A 20-year-old British man has been jailed for selling the horse tranquiliser ketamine disguised as health food.
Alex Middleton, from Grimsby, used a digital drugs market called Silk Road 2 to sell the stupefyingly strong drug to customers in the UK, USA, Canada, and Germany.
Ketamine, a class B drug, was posted in bags labelled "sea vegetable supplement", along with fake invoices suggesting it had been sent by a legitimate health firm.
On the Silk Road II marketplace, which could only be accessed through the dark web, Middleton hid behind the name MaximusDecimus to sell drugs sourced from India and China.
Officers from the National Crime Agency raided the young man's home in November last year, where they found bags of ketamine and bottles of Alprozam liquid, which is better known as the class C drug Xanax.
Police then searched Middleton's computers and found orders for chemisty equipment and details of transactions.
Investigators found at least 195 pieces of detailed feedback from customers from around the world who had bought his drugs.
David Norris, NCA Branch Commander, said: "This is another reminder to criminals that the dark web isn’t as anonymous as they might hope, we have the ability to track and identify them and will continue to prosecute people who use the dark web to commit and enable serious crime."
On 10 June 2015, Middleton pleaded guilty to five charges relating to "the possession, importation and intent to supply of Class B and C drugs".
He was sentenced to 2 years 4 months at Leeds Crown Court today.